Why the commercial real estate crisis hasn't felt like much of a crisis. At least not yet

For about a year now, we've been hearing that commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop, the next big financial debacle. And for about a year now, the oft-predicted crisis has stubbornly refused to materialize. It's not that everything's fine in the commercial real estate business. Everything's awful and will probably get more awful. But unlike 2008's Wall Street panic, this particular financial unraveling looks as if it will play out over a period of years, not weeks.